The six Paterson Trophy Indoor Bowls winners were found this weekend to go forward to compete in the Diamond Jubilee of the Lion Foundation Welch Trophy inter-district final at the Waikato Indoor Bowls Stadium in Hamilton in September.

Auckland, Tauranga, Manawatu, North Wellington, Canterbury and Otago were the successful districts. Those districts that lost their Paterson Trophy were Waikato, North Taranaki and Hutt Valley.

In zone one, at the beginning of the second day only six points separated the first five teams. Thames Valley led with 60 followed by Auckland 59.5, Roskill and Districts 57, Counties and Northland 54 and North Harbour 39.5.

In the penultimate session Auckland make a break on the field to take the lead with 84.5, with Roskill and Districts overtaking Thames Valley to be on 79, Thames Valley 76.

In the final session Auckland maintained their lead to win convincingly with 109 points with Thames Valley finishing second.

Top scorers for Auckland were Lance Jenner with 11 wins and 3 draws, Carol Wright with 10 wins and 3 draws and Paul Wright with 7 wins and 6 draws.

Final standings were Auckland (Gavin Eccles, Rodney Mills, Patrick Morrison, Teri Anderson, Lance Jenner, Paul Wright, Carol Wright, Paul Psaila) 109. Thames Valley 98, Counties 89.5, Roskill and Districts 89, Northland 86 and North Harbour 68.5

Tauranga dominated zone two to win their Paterson Trophy with New Zealand representative Mike Phipps top scoring with ten wins out of a possible eleven.

The win was so clear cut it was not necessary to play the final game of pairs.

Phipps was well supported by Simon Poppleton and Ben Thurston with nine wins each and junior player Alex Reed who was outstanding on debut with eight wins and a draw. Hawke's Bay challenged Tauranga in the early rounds but once Tauranga took the lead they dominated the competition. Waikato which was defending the Paterson Trophy holder failed to fire and finished in fourth place behind Tauranga, Hawke's Bay, Poverty Bay.

Final Standings were Tauranga (Simon Poppleton, Mike Phipps, Ben Thurston, Alex Reed, Keith Setter, Paul Smith, Geoff Coughey, Fiona Wilson) 96, Hawke's Bay 70.5, Poverty Bay 64, Waikato 59 and Bay of Plenty 40.5.

At the beginning of the second day in zone three Manawatu on 74 points led Taranaki on 72.5. A feature of this zone at this point was the outstanding form of Grant l'Ami and Paul Midgley.

At this stage the defending Paterson Trophy holder North Taranaki was trailing in third place with 61 points. In the final two sessions l'Ami continued on his winning way and took Taranaki to the lead with Manawatu just 3.5 points behind going into the final session. In this session Manawatu lost both games of fours for Taranaki to take the lead 104, Manawatu 96.5. In the final round of singles Taranaki scored 11 points while Manawatu closed the gap to just 5.5 points behind. Taranaki 115, Manawatu 110.5. In the final round of pairs disaster hit Taranaki when the wheels fell off and they lost all of their games while Manawatu exerted enormous pressure to win three games to come from behind and win the Paterson Trophy by 4.5 points over Taranaki.

Top scorers for Manawatu were North Island representative Robbie Lochrie with11 wins and 2 draws, Tony Griffin, 10 wins and 3 draws and Tim Veale with 10 wins and 2 draws. Ironically Grant l'Ami's only loss was in the last game of pairs. He ended up with 14 wins and Paul Midgley with 12 wins and 1 draw

Final standings were Manawatu (Keith Waghorn, Cliff Byrne, Paul McGovern, Jonathan Warrington, Robbie Lochrie, Tim Veale, Tony Griffin, Sarah Warrington) 119.5, Taranaki 115, North Taranaki 106.5, Wanganui 106, King Country 62.5 and Central King Country 30.5.

There was a mighty battle in zone four with the lead changing frequently in a real cliff hanger between Upper Hutt Valley, the defending champions Hutt Valley and North Wellington. The final round of fours was crucial as Horowhenua, North Wellington and Bush Ruahine won both of their games and the leaders none. With the pairs and singles still to be played North Wellington took the lead for the first time with 88 followed by Upper Hutt Valley 85.5, Hutt Valley 83, Horowhenua 82.5 and Bush Ruahine 68. It got even closer after the final round of singles with Hutt Valley and Upper Hutt Valley scoring twelve points each, Horowhenua ten points, North Wellington and Bush Ruahine six points and Wairarapa two points. Upper Hutt Valley was on 97.5, Hutt Valley 95, North Wellington 94 and Horowhenua 92.5. In the last round of pairs where 12 points were at stake for each district Horowhenua scored 12 points, North Wellington 12 points, Wairarapa 7.5, while Upper Hutt Valley and Hutt Valley folded under the pressure in a huge finish with 4.5 and 0 respectively. This allowed North Wellington to come through to win in dramatic style and Horowhenua to finish in second place.

Top scorers for North Wellington were Avon Compton with 12 wins, Jessie Moffat 11 wins and for Horowhenua Jason Moore 11 wins and Danny Moore had 10 wins. Upper Hutt Valley's Brandon Fuge had 9 wins and 2 draws and Chris McAdams and Blake Signal had 9 wins and a draw

Final standings North Wellington ( Grant Rayner, Avon Compton, Brent Biggar, Gregor Lang, Reece Wickenden, Dale Lang, Hewson Whiting, Jessie Moffat) 106, Horowhenua 104.5, Upper Hutt Valley 102, Hutt Valley 95, Bush Ruahine 74, Wairarapa 58.5.

Defending Paterson Trophy and Welch Trophy holder Canterbury started the final session in zone five having taken the lead from Nelson in the fourth session Saturday night. At this stage they led with 102.5 points, Nelson 94.5 and Ashburton third 80.5. They extended their lead in the final session to win comfortably in the end. South Island representative Owen Ditfort top scored with eleven wins and a draw, while New Zealand representatives, Ashley Diamond, Simon Thomas and Blair Spicer recorded 11 wins each, Julie Thomas 9 wins and 3 draws while Rob Osborne recorded 10 wins and a draw in an excellent all round team effort. Lloyd Bellis and Michael Johnston were Nelson's stars with 12 wins each.

Final standings were Canterbury (Simon Thomas, Blair Spicer, Rob Osborne, Julie Thomas, Ashley Diamond, Owen Philpott and Mike King) 124.5, Nelson 119.5, Ashburton 102, West Coast 70, Marlborough 63.5 and Golden Bay-Motueka 60.5.

Otago won zone six and in so doing retained the Paterson Trophy for that zone. Otago's main competition came from Central Otago. Otago's last win in the Welch Trophy was in 2003. Otago had taken the lead after the first day with 67 points followed by Central Otago and South Canterbury. They maintained their grasp on the tournament and ran out comfortable winners. Southland came in a disappointing fourth. Otago's win was spearheaded by David Webb and Hugh Bosman who each recorded 11 wins and Raymond Webster and Daniel French who recorded 10 wins each.

South Otago who was 5th Saturday night, came home a very close second and in fact with 99 points it is South Otago's highest ever points scored in a Paterson Event. One of South Otago's young players Stephen Preddy scored 11 wins and 2 draws.

A great result for South Otago and a new look team.

Final standings were. Otago (Daniel French, Raymond Webster, David Webb, Hugh Bosman, Craig Cowan, Bob Cowan, Kristen Gould, Daniel Sinclair) 113, South Otago 99, Central Otago 89, Southland 88.5, South Canterbury 86, North Otago 64.5